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Monday, February 13, 2012

Samsung unviels the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) and confuses us

Samsung has launched another 7-inch tablet, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) as a successor to its 2010 Samsung Galaxy Tab. Wait, didn't the Samsung Galaxy Tab already have a successor in the form of the Galaxy P6200 Tab 7.0 Plus. A bit perplexed, we checked the specifications of the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) and it seems to be a downgraded Galaxy P6200 Tab 7.0 Plus.

Like the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, both the Galaxy P6200 Tab 7.0 Plus and the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) have full phone functionality. Both have 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution screens, like the original. Both share a lot of things in common. The biggest difference seems to be the processor and chipset.

And this is where the reason for existence of the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) is explained. We are pretty sure that the 1GHz dual core processor will be on a less expensive processor, graphics and chipset combo than Samsungs Exynos. The entire reason for the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) is to create a lower price version of the Galaxy P6200 Tab 7.0.

Given the US$199 selling price of the Amazon Kindle Fire, it is a fair guess that Samsung has had to rethink it Galaxy P6200 Tab 7.0 and cut costs on its product. How much cheaper, we still don't know. Given that the Galaxy P6200 Tab 7.0 retails for Php23,990, I am guessing the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) will be sold at not more that Php18,000. But that is just my guess.

The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) comes with Android 4.x "Ice Cream Sandwich", but we do expect the Galaxy P6200 Tab 7.0 to get ICS too in short order.